Imbricated bag packages have been widely accepted for various packaging requirements such as the packaging of food products. In the past, a number of developments have been made to provide a package of a plurality of overlying bags arranged along a strip. One such bag arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,161,347 issued on Dec. 15, 1964 to G. H. Hannon wherein a plurality of open end bags are arranged along a member in an overlying arrangement with a portion of each bag being in contact with the supporting member. Each of the bags has its opening at the same end of the package with each preceding bag in a given direction along the strip overlying the opening of the following bag. While Hannon was an improvement over the prior art this invention represents a further improvement in properly orienting the imbricated bags with respect to removing the bags from a supply source to a processing or loading station.
Another package of imbricated bags is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,843 issued on June 28, 1971 to Ralph L. Wing. In the Wing patent the imbricated bags are connected to two strands of tape adhered on the same side of the bag.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,587,844 and 3,587,845 issued on June 28, 1971 wherein a plurality of open end bags was positioned one on top of the other in an overlapping relationship with each of the bags being releasably secured to the next succeeding bag by adhesive means. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,844, a pair of adhesive splotches are utilized as the adhesive means while in U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,845 a pair of swatches of two faced adhesive members are utilized as the adhesive means. The bag packages in these two patents are not easily transported in a bag loading machine or printing device or processing station since no carriers are available for moving the bags.
There is further disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,302 issued on Oct. 28, 1975 to Farrelly et al. a package of imbricated closed end bags wherein the bags are releasably attached to adhesive strips, as well as, adhesive materials on the inside and outside of the bags.
While the prior art shows a variety of packages of imbricated bags, it is a primary object of this invention to provide an improved package of imbricated bags. It is another object of the present invention to show an improved way to assemble a chain of overlying bags. It is still another object to provide a chain of imbricated open-end bags with improved orientation during use. Further, it is an object to provide a chain of imbricated bags where the bags may be fed with improved orientation to a conventional bag loading machine or processing station without having to incorporate any modification to the machines.
The foregoing and other objects are achieved by a chain of imbricated bags and method described below.